>> the u.s. house is gambling and after it's thanksgiving recess. now to live coverage. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., december 9, 2013. i hereby appoint the honorable jeff denham to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed john a. boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the

house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until 2:00 p.m. today. >> members will return at 2:00 eastern for speeches. the house will consider a bill about child abuse penalties. andfederal budget agreement legislation to delay a 24% cut to medicare payments to doctors. live coverage of the house when members return on c-span. president obama is headed to south africa to attend a moral

service for nelson mandela. he is joined on air force one by first lady michelle as well as george w. bush and hillary clinton. jimmy carter plans to join the group. nelson mandela will be very december 15 following a state funeral in his hometown. >> the wireline world is the central circulatory system of our economy. it is the veins and the arteries that can act what is now the information economy in the u.s.. we are seeing data traffic increase at the rate of 40% per year. it is wireline networks that connect all forms of communications, what are they exhibit -- whether they originate in a wireline or wireless environment. future of the communications industry, with u.s. telecom head walter mccormick.

tonight on "the communicators," at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> i got upset with the president. the, at my mental health first few meetings. then they never showed up. housewalking in the white and i met this woman, one of the press people. , nobody ever covers my meetings. she said, mrs. carter, mental health is not a sexy issue. legislation and mental health systems act of 1980. it passed through congress one month before jimmy was, as he says, involuntary retired from

the white house. the incoming president put it on a shelf. it was one of the greatest of women's of my life. >> rosalynn carter, tonight at 9:00 eastern, live on c-span and c-span3. also on c-span radio and c- span.org. upon returning from when he said was his eighth trip to the middle east, john kerry addressed a forum on u.s.-israel posted by the brookings institution's savon for him. he talks about the nuclear deal with the ran, palestinian peace talks, and syrian chemical weapons. he speaks for about 45 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you for the generous introduction and for the great work you are now doing at the saban center. good afternoon to everybody. welcome to a remarkable -- i have been noticing the numbers of people. i do not often get the president of the united states as an opening act, but i will take it. [laughter] it is a pleasure and a great honor for me to be here with all of you. as i'm looking at the faces particularly in the front row here, general allen and others, it is as though we time warped ourselves from a meeting in jerusalem yesterday, and here we are. morning inday jerusalem to this afternoon in washington, it is a pleasure to be here. welcome to all of you who have traveled from israel and from the territories.

it is a pleasure to be here. saban.im and cheryl i am so personally graced by their friendship and got to know them well during the course of my elected political life. but it is really nice to be able to come here today and congratulate both of them in person for the incredible work than they have done to further strong relationships between the united states and israel. and this forum, as all of you have seen in the last 24 hours, has become an invaluable expression of not just their personal commitment, but our ability to come together to talk about complicated issues. it is already the 10th anniversary. during that short span of time, it is safe to say this has become the premiere venue for a u.s.-israel public dialogue. i guess it is no surprise because there is a lot to talk about.

i am also -- i will just share with you quickly, haim and i are about the same age. when we were each in high school, haim in tel aviv and me in new england, we both picked up the bass guitar and we dreamed of making it big as rock stars. [laughter] if you ever heard the music that my bandmates and i made, and you can go on youtube and actually hear it, you would know that my first true act of public service was when i stopped playing public gigs. [laughter] maybe that is why i wound up as secretary of state and haim became a hollywood mogul. from garage band the present is quite a journey. i am looking at this front row here, mr. foreign minister. it is a pleasure to see you here. you and i will have the privilege of having breakfast tomorrow morning. i congratulate you again on coming back to these duties.

i look forward to working with you. it is going to be very important. i am also privileged to see our minister of justice. livni, weg -- tzippi have become great friends and worked very closely together over time. she took me to where i saw those rockets that come out of the gaza strip. we have spent many hours together sharing thoughts about possibilities. mr. prime minister, wonderful to see you again, ehud. thank you for continuing to be a voice in this process. the leader of the opposition, as you all know, having been in the opposition and been in the majority, i know the important role that he plays and will play in the future. i congratulate him on his victory. recognize our president of the brookings -- where is strobe?

strobe, thank you. great service, not just here, but obviously as former deputy secretary of state and in many other ways. i value his counsel. he has come over to help me think about frozen conflicts. i am privileged -- we all are privileged to have his continued public input. ted, i congratulate you on taking over from martin while he is now with us. working the cause as you have said. i am grateful for his dedication and willingness to do some very difficult, time-consuming, and patience-requiring work. i thank him for doing that. i will share some thoughts with all of you on a number of things. i wish i could stay. there is nothing i love more than the give and take. i love to take the questions.

i know you have plenty of them. it would serve well, probably, to be just answering questions. but unfortunately, i have to go from here to the kennedy center honors, which i preside over this evening, so my time is a little bit limited. i apologize for that. as was mentioned by tamara in her introduction, late last night i got back from my eighth visit to israel. mr. justice, it is wonderful to see you here. a good new englander, red sox nation fan and all of that. [laughter] my eighth visit as secretary of state. now, i am not a masochist. [laughter] i am undertaking this because i believe in the possibilities. as many of you know, i have spent almost 30 years in the united states senate and i am proud of my 100% voting record

for israel, but i'm proud also that i built up relationships in the mideast with leaders and with arab countries and elsewhere who learned that they could come to trust me. and i believe that i approached this great challenge with a huge sense of responsibility. about building trust and, ultimately, building a process that will test and provide guarantees to people about this concept called peace. on this visit, i spent most of the time focused on israel's security concerns, because for years and years and years it has been clear to me and every prime minister that unless a prime minister could look the people of israel in the eye and make it clear to them that he had open -- that he had spoken for israel's security to a certainty, he cannot make peace.

it is a prerequisite. for anyone who feels somehow there might be an unfairness in that, all you have to do is look at the history and understand why that is a fundamental reality. and i mean all of the history. every time i visit, i can feel in my gut and i see it as well as hear it first hand just how vulnerable israel can be and just how important it is for the united states' commitment to israel's security to remain ironclad. ours is a commitment that spans decades. in 1973, it was the driving force behind the 32-day airlift that the united states conducted to deliver vital military assistance to israel to turn the tide in the yom kippur war. about a decade later, our commitment to israel's security spurred the u.s.-israeli

development of missile defense technologies to keep israelis safe from rockets and missiles. those systems and newer technologies continue to protect israelis from the range of threats that they still face today. president obama and i -- and i think you heard this from the president in his q&a earlier today -- remain deeply committed. indeed determined to ensuring israel has the ability to defend itself by itself. that is why in fact, by any measurement, president obama's administration has done more than any before to make israel more secure, including funding iron dome, which i saved untold -- which has saved untold lives by intercepting hundreds of rockets that might otherwise have struck schools, hospitals, or homes. deepening our day-to-day security on an ongoing basis.

negotiating a new, long-term memorandum of understanding to lock in long-term military assistance for the future. providing access to the most sophisticated u.s. military technology, such as precision munitions, the f-35 joint strike fighter, the v-22 osprey. israel is the only country in the world to receive it from the united states. and engaging in extensive training and joint exercises in areas of special operations, missile defense, and search-and- rescue. unprecedented levels. these examples and a lot more should make crystal clear our commitment to preserve israel's qualitative military edge so that israel can defend itself by itself against any threat.

and when israel, or if israel were to come under attack by terrorists on its borders or by an international organization, we will always stand up for israel's right to defend itself. and the united states is always particularly prepared to be the first and fastest to israel's side in any time of crisis. we approach this challenge believing that israel has to be strong to make peace, but that peace will also make israel stronger. and we are convinced that the greatest security will actually come from a two-state solution that brings israel lasting peace. shared prosperity throughout the region, good relations among neighbors, peace of mind for the people of israel and for palestinians alike -- none of this is possible without

addressing israel's legitimate security concerns and ensuring that as a result of peace they are more secure, not less. that is why security led our agendas in jerusalem and ramallah this week. i want to make it clear, we have been at this since april, when we announced the resumption of talks in the months -- and the months preceding were dedicated to trying to get there. by necessity, we have had to do some groundwork, some due diligence in order to be able to address these legitimate concerns and questions in a way that they have never been addressed before. in ramallah this week, we engaged in that discussion as well as in jerusalem.

general john allen, sitting right here in the second row, has done extraordinary work. he commanded our coalition forces in afghanistan, trained up 350,000 troops there, not to mention the tens of thousands in iraq. this is a man who knows how to build capacity. he recently retired as a four- star marine corps general, and he is one of the best military minds in america. and he has been asked by the president and me and the secretary of defense to lead this effort of a security dialogue with the idf. he is helping us make sure that the border on the jordan river will be as strong as any in the world so that there will be no question about the security of the citizens, israelis and palestinians, living to the west. now, i will tell you point blank, and i have read all of

the history of these negotiations and i have lived part of the history of these negotiations. i was on the lawn when the famous handshake took place. i have had many, many a meeting over time as chairman of the foreign relations committee and as a senator. never before -- ever -- has the united states conducted such an in depth analysis of israel's security requirements that arise from the potential of a two- state solution. never. understanding the importance of this analysis, we are examining every potential security scenario, something on the border, something in the future, terrorism in the future, the weakness of the hashemite kingdom. what ever it may be. we are coordinating with the jordanians and the palestinians to create a layered approach that both guarantees israel's security and fully respects palestinian sovereignty. that is the threading of the

needle, but it is a critical threading of the needle that has to happen in order to achieve an agreement. general allen is joined by dozens, literally, i think there are about 160 people, military experts, intel experts, and others working to analyze this so what we put on the table is deadly serious, real, because these stakes are real. and we have highly qualified defense officials working with dozens of organizations in the united states, including the office of the secretary of defense, the defense security and cooperation agency, the defense threat reduction agency, darpa, which is the pentagon's research arm that created the internet, not to mention the joint staff and the united states army, navy, air force, and marines. they are all hard at work analyzing what began, frankly, back in 2011 as a culinary -- as

a preliminary analysis was made, now it is becoming state of art as we ramp it up for this possibility of peace. they are all hard at work in close consultation with their idf counterparts, and we will engage in further close evaluation with every aspect and with palestinians. and with the palestinians, which is critical. we have a separate team assessing palestinian security needs in the context of statehood. we anticipate that the united states will continue to play a leading role in building, helping to build palestinian capacity, helping to build their capabilities, to maintain law and order, to cooperate in an effective judicial system, to counter terrorism and smuggling and manage border security, customs, immigration. needless to say, for a period of time, this will obviously involve israeli participation. it has to.

but there also have to be objective standards by which we measure performance. the former police commissioner in boston, ed davis, who is widely respected in the law- enforcement community, was in the west bank in august offering his strategic counsel. we will work with this as professionally as anybody has ever done. we will not leave things to chance. there is a serious responsibility that comes with statehood. and i have shared that notion with my friends in the west bank, and they take it seriously. they do. it will take time to train, build, equip, and test palestinian institutions to ensure that they are capable of protecting palestinian citizens. their primary responsibility is that. and also preventing their territory from being used for attacks on israel. now, i have heard all the arguments. we pulled out of lebanon. look what we got.

we got rockets. we pulled out of gaza. look what we got. we got rockets. yeah, we did, but we also didn't settle any of the issues. unilateral is not an answer. you have to resolve the fundamentals of this conflict. and if all of you take the time all ofine the history of the efforts before, what happened is they always left the final status agreement to the future. and that leaves it to mischief. and it leaves it to all the worst forces that could fill a vacuum. it is essential, in my judgment, to reach for a total agreement and to have a framework within which we can try to work for that. after waiting so long for statehood, the palestinian people deserve effective state institutions.

israel and jordan must know that they will have a reliable and responsible neighbor, not a failed state living between them. now, i believe and president obama believes that strong diplomacy is essential. make no mistake -- security is only one essential part of this equation. backed by the unquestioned potential of our powerful armed forces and alliances, we have to also engage in strong, smart diplomacy. and that is diplomacy backed by force, which can achieve outcomes that force alone often cannot actually produce. diplomacy, for example, is today succeeding in removing the threat of syria's chemical weapons. as the civil war was raging just north of major population centers in israel, prime minister netanyahu raised with

me his concerns about those weapons potentially falling into the hands of al-nusra, al qaeda, the iraqi state of the lavon -- of the levant. this is a real threat. falling into the hands of hezbollah or any other al qaeda- affiliated terrorists. we were growing in our concern of that. incidentally, so were the russians. we consulted closely with israel about those contingencies. but frankly, neither of us had a perfect solution. as much as some yearned for a military strike on syria -- and i have heard it all -- it would not have effectively removed the threat and it would have entailed enormous risks to innocent civilians. at one point, that was our only option. at best, we believed if we could deter and degrade syria's

chemical weapons capability through targeted military strikes -- don't forget, president obama made his decision and announced publicly that he was ready to take action. in the end, it was diplomacy that resulted in a peaceful process of accounting not for some, but of giving us the ability to account for all of these weapons and eliminate these weapons that pose such a threat to israeli citizens and others in the region. the process to remove and destroy those weapons, i can report to you today, is on track to be completed by the middle of next year. and we, the united states, will provide the capacity to destroy those weapons. we are working with the russians to contain them and move them and ship them to take them out of syria itself, proving that diplomacy can be so powerful it

world's worste weapons. that brings us to iran. we are using diplomacy to fully identify and address the threat brought to us by iran's nuclear program. it is a real threat. we have always taken it as such. we have no illusions. let me restate something that president obama has made clear since day one and reiterated again this afternoon -- we will not allow iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, period, not now, not ever. now, believe me, the united states fully understands that israel perceives a nuclear iran as an existential threat. why? because it is. and we understand that. while we may sometimes favor a , therent tactical choice u.s. and israel have always

shared the same fundamental goal. as we move forward in this negotiation, we will continue to consult very closely with israel, as with our other friends and allies in the region and around the world, whose input is critical to us in this process. this week, prime minister netanyahu's advisor will travel to the united states with direct conversations -- for direct conversations with our iran experts. that will help us to coordinate and shape our positions with respect to a comprehensive agreement going forward. as we enter negotiations for a final, comprehensive agreement, we absolutely do so with our eyes wide open. as yet -- we are as yet unconvinced that iran will absolutely make all the hard decisions necessary to reach such an agreement. but these negotiations will not be open-ended. given the history with iran, a hidden mountainside site,

faster, more effective centrifuges -- we have a right to be skeptical. that is why this is not about trust. not about words, about actions. it is about testing the process, testing their commitment. this is about living up to verifiable, transparent, internationally-accepted standards, and only diplomacy can get you to the place where you establish what that is. let me make something else clear. i am convinced beyond any doubt that israel becomes safer the moment this first-step agreement is implemented. let me repeat that. israel will be safer the day this begins to be implemented than the day before. with implementation, we will sit

down with our p5+1 united colleagues and partners and with iran for the comprehensive discussion that prime minister netanyahu has always said he favors. we will do so with all due respect with one important advantage. we will have ensured that iran's program will not advance while we negotiate. as we negotiate, iran will forfeit its entire stock of 25% -- 20% enriched uranium, which was highlighted in a speech to the united nations, which is relatively a short step away from weapons grade. as we negotiate, iran will be unable to grow its stock of 3.5% enriched uranium. or unable to stockpile or increase the number of centrifuges that are operating. we will, for the first time, be able to inspect and go into the workshops and storage facilities for these items.

as we negotiate, international inspectors will have unprecedented access to iran's key facilities, which we do not have today. we will have daily access, regular access to the heavy water reactor site. they are required to give us the plans for that site. as we negotiate, the iraq facility, which is still under construction, and which could have provided an alternative path to a bomb, will be prohibited from installing any new components whatsoever or testing additional fuel. as we negotiate, our treasury department will remain absolutely determined to enforce our core sanctions, architecture which has deprived iran of more than $80 billion in oil revenue since 2012. we have deprived them of $80